Conflict Detection Performance of Ground-based Radar Networks for Urban Air Mobility

The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the capability of ground-based radar networks of detecting possible conflict threats in urban environment, thus support detect and avoid operations. The analysis is performed in a realistic simulation framework, where urban clutter, several sources of loss and weather conditions (i.e., rain) impact sensing performance. Simulation scenarios are designed taking inspiration from DO-381, and particularized by varying the conflict angle between targets’ trajectories and their radar cross-section. A customized tracking algorithm based on the Global Nearest Neighbor (GNN) assignment logic is exploited to process target tracks. Finally, conflict detection is addressed by properly setting time and distance (e.g., vertical and horizontal) thresholds and using as metrics the time to the closest point of approach (TCPA) and the distance at the closest point of approach (DCPA).